Sufuyan Ojeifo
9 October 2008
Abuja — Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, has appealed to the Federal Government to intervene in the plight of 50 Nigerian prisoners in Indonesia, especially the 18 on death row for drug offences.
Chukwumerije, who said the Ramadan fasting forced the postponement of their execution, said yesterday in an interview with Senate Correspondents, that the 18 Nigerians might be executed any moment from now.
"I want, through you, to appeal to the Nigerian authorities and Nigerian people to intervene in every legal way open to them, to persuade Indonesian authorities to temper justice with mercy.
"I must emphasise here that the issue of the prisoners being guilty or not of the offences allegedly committed by them is not the issue here", he said.
I believe, like all the law-abiding people of Nigeria, that Nigerians abroad must obey the laws of their host countries and constantly uphold the good name of Nigeria," adding that crime must not be condoned under any guise, either at home or abroad.
Chukwumerije said, "but two issues call for serious concern. One, our External Affairs Ministry and its embassies must take pro-active interest in protecting the rights of Nigerians abroad within the limits of the laws of host countries.
The second point is the need to pre-empt the possibility of a negative stereotyped image (arising from acts of an infinitesimal minority) being used by a country to impose blanket character judgment on the whole Nigerian community anywhere."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
